1. The Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to creating customized content for wireless devices. More specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to systems and methods for mixing a recording of a user generated recording into a musical track in order to create a customized ringtone for a mobile telephone.
2. The Relevant Technology
In relatively few years, cellular telephones have gone from being rare, expensive pieces of equipment used mainly by businesses to inexpensive, commonly owned personal devices. Cellular telephones have become an integral part of people's lives, and have even replaced the use of traditional land-line telephones in many homes throughout the world.
Along with the growth in use and popularity of cellular phones, a mobile culture has evolved and cellular phones are now widely used as social tools. Friends stay in touch using personalized phone address books, SMS text-messaging features, and email retrieval. The phone itself has become its own fashion object, with users personalizing, decorating, and customizing their phones to reflect their own personality or for other reasons.
Currently, users have several options to customize their phones. Decorative covers are widely available and can be easily changed. Cellular phones also offer users the ability to create custom settings. For example, many phones contain a memory bound listing of different ringtone selections, typically consisting of popular tunes, classical scores, or traditional telephone rings. While this listing generally offers a cellular phone user a degree of customization, the personalization is often limited to the number of selections preloaded in memory.
As users have sought additional ringtone choices beyond those available in the default phone settings, several options have become available. One option permits a user to download a desired ringtone from a large selection, typically available via the Internet. Generally, the user selects a previously created ringtone from a listing of available tones, often pays a fee for access to the new ringtone, and finally receives a SMS message which contains the ringtone of choice.
Despite these advances, however, users are generally still limited to selecting from a pre-fabricated library of ringtones. Generally, these ringtones are created by someone other than the user and prevent the user from participating in the creative decisions regarding the musical composition of the ringtone. Thus, there is a need for a highly customized ringtone service which allows the users the option of creating or fabricating customized ringtones.